The Spark awakens

Greetings followers of both sides of the Force. A few weeks ago we brought you Kylar's first contribution and now this Jedi Knight returns to the Valley to reveal the secrets of a deck that has made him very, very happy. Come in and enjoy!

It was time for the Resurgir. I had been playing the same Jedi deck since Regionals (changing from one to three objectives at most), so I had decided to play something different. My wish: Spectres. The main problem was that, even though the last pack was released in Spain on September 30th, I buy the game in English, and it seemed it wasn’t gonna be on time for the tournament (and it wasn’t), so I couldn’t decide what to play without knowing if I could count on Zeb or not. Thanks to Noel, I could use him.

The core of the deck was clear: Kanan, Sabine and Zeb, 2 copies of each set, and abuse the Spark’s action (once per turn, look at the top card of your deck. If it’s a Spectre unit or a Character with printed cost 2 or lower, you can put it into play). The Influence of the other 2 objectives and the fact that Kanan’s set doesn’t need Jedi resource matching was amazing. And with all the enhancements in Sabine’s set and the Freelance in Zeb’s (as an action, you can look the first card in your deck; if it is an enhancement, you can put it into play enhancing an elegible target), I found The Gardener’s Secret indispensable for this deck. I just needed 3 more sets.

In order to avoid a possible resource blockade, I decided to include 4 rebel and 4 smuggler sets. And I was clear on two things: 1) I wanted to make the most out of the Spark and 2) I needed some Twists of Fate. Having this mind, my options were:

-       Falcon: draw conditioned to the edge battle, difficult to play the Falcon with so little resources, (super) 2-cost character, 2-2 suboptimal resource, 2-cost event and twist. 7 pips total.

-       Core Leia: one shield every turn with the objective, two 2-cost characters, an enhancement, a free event for drawing (and more with Leia on the table) and twist. 8 pips total.

-       Jan Ors: poor 4-1 objective, 3-cost main with possibilities of striking twice, two 1-cost characters with little to do (give you one card when they leave play wasn't that much), 2-2 Force-conditioned resource and twist. 5 pips total.

-       Dodonna: +1 to the reserve value when the objective is not damaged, 4-cost main with good icons, two poor 2-cost characters, 3-2 elite resource and twist. 7 pips total.

Jan Ors was dismissed ipso facto. As I said, I wanted to take 4 objectives of each color, so there was room for only one Falcon’s set, and it wasn’t such a good idea: if I draw it soon, it would be used in the edge battle. So I had to choose between Dodonna and Leia, and the princess’ set could be played totally for free. I wasn’t 100% sure about the choice, but it seemed the best on the paper.

Leia rocks!

I just needed another smuggler set and my deck would be complete. After an exhaustive search among all the yellow sets, I had several options:

-       Dash: edge, a unit for the Spark, a lot of draw and one Target of Opportunity.

-       Honor Among Thieves: 3 mediocre units for the Spark. That was all.

-       Impersonating a Deity was a good option: the event is a pain in the neck in the first turns, it has seeds of decay and two ewoks for the Spark.

-       Core Chewie: it may work because of the protection, the event and the wookies coming via Spark.

But nothing convinced me more than Gamor. The objective let me discard after failing with the Spark (and also failing a Spark with Leia on top to win the Force), the Hired Hands were great for the Spark (and they are not expensive, in case of having to pay for them), the resource is perfect and the event very situational. The Marauder was going to spend little time on the table, but it has 3 pipes for the edge. Done.

Gamor Run...what else?

Now I had to decide the affiliation for the deck. In theory, I had 2 jedi, 4 rebel and 4 smuggler objectives; in practice, 4 jedi, 6 rebel and 6 smuggler. The resource cards in the deck, apart from few (deneba and the two from Zeb’s set, apart from Kanan and Sabine) were yellow, so I had to use Rebel affiliation. And finally, after two hours of deckbuilding, and 6 hours before the tournament, I had my deck prepared:

Affiliation: Rebel Alliance

2x Fleeing the Empire (10)

1x Along the Gamor Run (109)

2x Spark of Rebellion (229)

1x The Gardener’s Secret (230)

2x Explosives Artist (232)

2x The Last Warrior (237)

Some numbers:

22 units, 20 of them target for the Spark (only Momaw and the Marauder didn’t work)

16 enhancements

85 pips

Two twists

In the tournament I won three of the five games I played during the swiss (2/4 against Navy and 1/1 against Sith). I couldn’t do anything against Noel: his deck was very fast and I didn’t start with the Spark. It did work with Toritaka, but I couldn’t destroy the third objective soon enough. I was very happy with the results, and I was the best Rebel of day one!

Sample hand...

I ended 9^th in the swiss rounds because of SoS, and it was top 8…Out of the top again, but Cjordang couldn’t play on day 2, so I played as 8^th. I started against Alberto and his Navy deck. Great game of the Spark and next round. I won Soseth with my Scum deck, and I lost in the upper-bracket semifinal against Rafa and his Navy deck. In the lower semifinal, I did the perfect game with Scum against Alberto, and I reached the final against Rafa. I had to play again with Scum, and I won. Another Spark vs Navy game. I started very fast, and in my third turn I had on the table Sabine with Bo-Rifle, Kanan, two Children of the Force and a Gardener’s weenie, and two twists, one Leia, one Well Equipped, one Target of Opportunity and one 1-pip card. I misplayed the edge with Sabine against his only defender and I lost it. I could have won destroying the three objectives in one turn. I had to wait, and pray for it to not be definitive. It almost was, but Rafa didn’t draw neither an Empire Strikes Back nor a Twist. Dial at 8 and two of my objectives had been destroyed. I had destroyed one of his and two other were with 4 damages. My table at the beginning of my turn was Zeb, Kanan and Sabine (with a shield from Leia’s objective) with two focus tokens each. His table was Tarkin and Interdictor. I drew a freelance and Hired Hands, with 3 2-pipes card and one Well Equipped. The two attacked, the Interdictor defended and I won the edge thanks to Rafa keeping a Moment of Triumph in hand that would have made him win it. So Sabine was free to attack without defenders and destroy the third objective.

A faction card'd sightseeing? 

To sum up: it is a very funny deck, with a lot of draw, a lot of free cards and fast, explosive turns where you can easily destroy three objectives if your opponent is not ready. You don’t need to attack every turn, and if you suffer the Enforced Loyalty one or two turns, that’s OK: it’s better to have more units and make it explode in one single turn. And if they play a Moment of Triumph, it’s not a problem: you keep the Spectres and quickly have 3-4 units in play. The most important thing: I won my first important tournament with it. I’m proud of my first 100% deck of my own.

I hope you liked it, and I want to read your oppinions about it in the comments section. Thanks to Valle del Jedi for letting me write here, and see you soon. May the Force be with you!